The Times newspaper will be printed in tabloid form only from Monday after more than 200 years as a broadsheet, it has been announced. The decision to scrap its broadsheet edition was made after a successful trial run of the tabloid version. Times editor Robert Thomson said: "The launch of the compact has transformed the fortunes of the newspaper." Since publishing a broadsheet and tabloid version, sales of the paper have gone up by 4.5%.
Source: BBC news
DotJournalism covers the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) conference in London: "[Andrew] Hart, managing director of Associated New Media, 'told delegates that the internet is a truly global community and the first information democracy [...] But he said that search has now become a tool that can be exploited, with specialist agencies paid big bucks by big business to improve their position in search results.' Speakers also criticised Google's news tool. Andrew Hart referred to a recent report by web publishing consultant Vin Crosbie which found that 48 per cent of results returned by Google's News tool came from just five sources: Although Google spiders more than 7,000 news sources, only about a dozen sources account for the vast majority of stories displayed on Google News day to day, and two of those predominant sources are owned and operated by the U.S. and Chinese governments."
Source: DotJournalism
Vin Crosbie at Poynter Online
Forbes repors that the Australian newspaper publisher John Fairfax Holdings Ltd. "expects profit for the first half of this fiscal year to grow between 12 percent and 15 percent." This bright forecast is due to increased earnings stemming from new newspaper acquisitions in New Zealand; as well as good performance of their Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers. Forbes informs further that "the company's net profit for the year ended June 30 was 276 million Australian dollars (US$195 million; euro 161 million), up from A$125.5 million a year earlier."
My name is Ulrike Trux and I am a new writer at the Editors Weblog. I am German and will hence put more emphasis on the German speaking news in my weblog entries. If you would like to contact me with suggestions or questions please feel free to email me at weblog@wan.asso.fr
My name is Ulrike Trux and I am a new writer at the Editors Weblog. I am German and will hence put more emphasis on the German speaking news in my weblog entries. If you would like to contact me with suggestions or questions please feel free to email me at weblog@wan.asso.fr
The German weekly newspaper Die Zeit captured an article on Bertelsmann's announcement to put more emphasis on the TV market. Chief executive Gunter Thielencalculates a 503 million net profit from the German RTL-group for 2003, and describes targeted advertisement on their TV-networks to improved sales in other sections of the company as a long-term goal of the company. RTL-group Chief executive Gerhard Zeiler also announced that Bertelsmann is planning to create a European-wide network family. Already Bertelsmann holds 40% of the French network M6 and is planing to enlarge it's shares of the Spanish Antenna3 and British Channel5 within the next 18 months. This new development could have a negative impact on the print department of Bertelsmann.
Source: Zeit.de
The German weekly newspaper Die Zeit captured an article on Bertelsmann's announcement to put more emphasis on the TV market. Chief executive Gunter Thielencalculates a 503 million net profit from the German RTL-group for 2003, and describes targeted advertisement on their TV-networks to improved sales in other sections of the company as a long-term goal of the company. RTL-group Chief executive Gerhard Zeiler also announced that Bertelsmann is planning to create a European-wide network family. Already Bertelsmann holds 40% of the French network M6 and is planing to enlarge it's shares of the Spanish Antenna3 and British Channel5 within the next 18 months. This new development could have a negative impact on the print department of Bertelsmann.
Source: Zeit.de
According to Business Standard, "Bennett, Coleman & Co, which publishes The Times of India and a clutch of other newspapers and magazines, has bought a 6.15 per cent stake in Mid Day Multimedia, the Ansari family promoted Mumbai-based company that publishes the afternoon paper Mid-Day and is the holding company for an FM radio channel, a television channel and an outdoor advertising division... According to Mid Day Multimedia, negotiations are still on with Bennett, Coleman for the company to acquire a larger stake in Mid-Day Multimedia."
Source: Business Standard
Top editors at the Chicago Tribune tried desperately to stop publication Tuesday of a prominent feature story exploring usage of a vulgar slang term for a woman's anatomy. After discovering Tuesday morning that the story, which contained a provocative headline, had already hit the presses at the newspaper's Freedom Center printing plant, Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski ordered a team of high-ranking editors to manually pull the section out of pre-printed packages... An editor's note in today's edition offered an apology. "Senior editors determined that the story was inappropriate after the preprinted section went to press. Most copies were removed from Wednesday's edition of the paper, though a relatively small number of copies may still contain it."
Source: Wall Street Journal
According to Netzeitung the higher regional court in Dusseldorf has denied the complaint of Holtzbrinck Publishing against the decision taken by the German office of trust earlier this year. The union of Holtzbrinck with Berliner Zeitung violates, as announced by the court, open competition in the market, since Holtzbrinck would enjoy a predominant position on the market of regional newspapers. Berliner Zeitung is the largest newspaper in the region of Berlin/Brandenburg with an average circulation of 180.488 readers on weekdays and 200.461 readers on weekends. The Holtzbrinck Publishing Group currently encompasses six regional papers, and, more prominently Die Zeit, Wirtschaftswoche, and Handelsblatt.
Source: Netzeitung through IFRA-Newsletter
As revealed by the comparative sales statistics 2003/2004 for Germany, published by Zeitungs Marketing Gesellschaft (organization for the marketing of Newspapers) on wednesday, the sales of daily newspapers in Germany have been reduced by 2.91% to 27.97 million. during the third quarter of 2004. The sector, which was hit worst is that of newsstand sales with a reduction of 5.36%, while subscription sales have only diminished by 2.26% according to ZMG.
Source: ZMG (registration required)
From Miami Herald: "Jack Fuller, a Pulitzer Prize winner who rose from Chicago Tribune copyboy to the executive suite, will retire as president of Tribune Publishing at the end of the year, the company announced Wednesday. His departure comes in the wake of a circulation scandal involving two of Tribune's 14 daily newspapers - Newsday and Spanish-language Hoy, both in New York. In a telephone interview, Fuller, 58, said he started thinking about retiring at the end of last year to focus on writing books. He said his departure didn't have anything to do with the circulation problems." Fuller will be replaced by Scott Smith, publisher of the Chicago Tribune.
Source: Miami Herald
Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a vice president of Dow Jones & Company, has been elected vice chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization announced today. "Paul Steiger is one of America's most respected editors," said David Laventhol, chairman of CPJ's board of directors. "His additional responsibilities at CPJ will strengthen the cause of press freedom everywhere."
Source: CPJ
BBC News announced a surprising news today: " The Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger has said the newspaper might endorse the Lib Dems instead of Labour at the next election. The paper has in recent years been a firm Labour supporter but backed the Lib Dems in the Hartlepool by-election. The newspaper has been a strident critic of the Iraq war and came out against Labour in the Hartlepool poll, while insisting its advice was a one-off and not a pointer to its general election stance."
Source: BBC News
In The Guardian, Claire Cozens wrote about the third worldwide press freedom ranking conducted by Reporters Without Borders . 167 countries were included in the survey. "The US authorities in Iraq have been ranked as one of the biggest dangers to journalists in the world, worse than the regime in Georgia and Afghanistan in a new global survey of press freedom. They have been ranked 108th by Reporters Without Borders, putting them just above Cambodia and only 11 places ahead of the Palestinian Authority in terms of safety. The press freedom organisation said it had given the US its own separate ranking in the war-torn country because of the number of journalists killed by US army gunfire. Overall, Iraq was ranked 148th in the world. "
According to AllAfrica.com, "Shareholders of the ailing ThisDay newspaper are in last-ditch negotiations with potential investors to rescue the daily from closure. There are about 15 possible investors, ThisDay chairman Nduka Obaigbena told journalists in Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon. Obaigbena, who is also the owner of ThisDay in Nigeria, would not reveal details of the negotiations with potential investors, but hinted that there was a possibility SA's youngest daily newspaper could soon be in control of South African hands."
Source: AllAfrica.com
